Knapp Lane Resident Faces $1,000 Fine, Stop-Work Order Following Multiple Land Use Violations

In what officials are calling a particularly egregious case of land use violations, a Knapp Lane homeowner faces a $1,000 fine and cease-and-desist order from the town following the discovery of multiple projects in and near a pond and brooks in the Noroton River watershed.

The owner of the 1.84-acre property at the eastern edge of the dead-end street violated state statutes and building codes as well as local Inland Wetlands and Planning & Zoning Regulations in driving construction equipment through a watercourse, removing trees, brush and undergrowth, excavating soil, demolishing a shed and building a new one, constructing a bridge and wall of boulders, and installing a concrete slab—all without contacting any agency in municipal government.

“This is a pretty serious violation,” Inland Wetlands Director Kathleen Holland said during a regular meeting Monday night of the Inland Wetlands Commission, held at Town Hall. Holland added that the property owner in this case has been very cooperative since the violations were brought to his attention.

Town officials happened upon the site by accident, and on Jan. 11 and 12 investigated further, quickly leading to a Municipal Citation as well as a stop work order and notice of violation.

“These violations include but are not limited to: garage and bridge construction, excavation, filling and grading,” said a Jan. 14 letter from the Department of Land Use to the homeowner, Hasim Sabovic. “All construction and earth –disturbing activities shall be stopped and cease and desist, until all issues are resolved to the satisfaction of the Town of New Canaan.”

Sabovic purchased the property—it includes a brick ranch-style home—in March of 2000 for $620,000, tax records show.

Specifically, Sabovic is cited for violating a state law that deals with permits required prior to demolition, three sections of the Connecticut State Building Code, multiple parts of two sections in New Canaan’s Inland Wetlands Regulations and five sections in the town’s zoning regs, officials said.

He appears to have rented equipment from a New Rochelle, N.Y.-based company and made a “significant grade cut” behind his garage varying from six-feet-nine-inches and leaving a 1:1 slope of unstable soils, according to a letter signed by the heads of Inland Wetlands, P&Z and Building for the town.

Sabovic also placed four to five feet of fill adjacent to a portion of the watercourse on both sides, stacked boulders four or five feet high for 40 feet along both sides and removed vegetation that’s exposed 15,000 square feet of loose exposed soils, they said.

“This is not the type of violation that we like to see at this point in time,” Holland said at the meeting.

Sabovic also excavated soil and then piled and spread it along the pond’s edges, in multiple locations and at varying depths, in a FEMA-designated floodplain, officials said.

“These activities have disturbed underlying wetlands and watercourse that are protected under the Regulations,” the town’s letter said. “No soil and erosion controls were installed.”

Town officials have ordered Sabovic to stop work and apply for required permits.

“Aside from the installation of silt fence or other sedimentation control measures or site stabilization measures, as approved by the town of New Canaan, there shall be no additional site work on the accessory structure,” P&Z officials said in the letter.

Sabovic is instructed to remove the structure that’s been built and restore the site to what it had been before.

To obtain a zoning permit for what he’s already done, Sabovic is required to obtain an updated survey, site plan and architectural floor plans, officials said.

“Based on the information available it is likely that the garage was built too close to the eastern property line, which as a 25-foot side yard setback,” town officials told him in their Jan. 14 letter. “If this assumption is correct, the garage cannot remain unless a variance is obtained from the ZBA. Should a variance be necessary and the ZBA denies a variance application, the structure must either be brought into conformance or you could appeal the ZBA’s decision to court.”

Officials said at the meeting that the ZBA decision likely will be made prior to other local agencies, such as Inland Wetlands, figuring out just how to address the environmentally damaging activities at the pond.

Some of the work that Sabovic did may have encroached on a neighboring property, owned by the estate of Tito and Ann Cerretani, officials said.

Officials said at Monday’s meeting that they were surprised the violations did not come to their attention through a neighbor’s inquiry or complaint, since the work being done was highly conspicuous to multiple properties.